Do Parents’ Academic Gender Stereotypes Influence Whether They Intrude on their Children’s Homework?

Abstract

In this study, we explored the possibility that when parents endorse particular academic gender stereotypes (e.g., boys are better at math, girls are better at English) they are more likely to engage in uninvited intrusions with homework, intrusions which then undermine children's confidence in these domains. Participants included 38 fifth to eighth grade students (mean age = 12.16 years, 60% girls, 87% White) and their mothers and fathers. The findings indicated that even though boys received more parental intrusive support with homework, girls were more sensitive to these intrusions, specifically when they involved math. Parents' intrusive support mediated the relationship between parents' math-related gender stereotypes and girls' math ability perceptions, which suggests that these behaviors communicate to girls their parents' math stereotype beliefs.

Parental Involvement in Math Homework: Links to Children’s Performance and Motivation

“…A similar result was obtained in the study of somewhat smaller children in the domain of reading (Silinskas et al, 2012), where the detrimental effect of parental teaching in first grade was also more evident for boys than girls. This result might be due to the fact that, consistent with the previous literature, boys get more direct homework help, which is often more controlling and intrusive (Bhanot & Jovanovic, 2005;Cooper et al, 2000;Dumont et al, 2012Dumont et al, , 2014, than girls. Thus, this increased unrequested parental control undermines feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, thereby inhibiting boys' learning-related motivation to a greater degree than that of the girls.…”

“…For instance, parents tend to help their sons more than daughters in completing homework assignments (Cooper et al, 2000) and check their sons' homework more frequently than that of their daughters (Carter & Wojtkiewicz, 2000). Parental involvement in boys' homework, compared to girls' homework, has been shown to be more controlling and intrusive (Bhanot & Jovanovic, 2005;Dumont et al, 2012), whereas girls tend to receive more parental support than boys (Dumont et al, 2012).…”

The Need to Distinguish Between Quantity and Quality in Research on Parental Involvement: The Example of Parental Help With Homework

“…Finally, in Model 4, students' achievement was regressed on quality/quantity of parental involvement without controlling for either prior achievement or family background. In all models, we controlled for sex because studies have reported that parents' involvement in boys' homework is more controlling and intrusive (Bhanot & Jovanovic, 2005;Niggli et al, 2007). The majority of previous studies have resembled our Model 4b: an estimate of the effect of the quantity of parental help in homework on achievement without controlling for students' prior achievement or family background.…”

Primary School Age Students' Spontaneous Comments about Math Reveal Emerging Dispositions Linked to Later Mathematics Achievement

“…Parents who believe that math and science are male-oriented domains tend to overestimate their sons' math and science performance and underestimate their daughters' performance in math and science at least in mid-to late-elementary school [25]. In middle school students, this underestimation may impact self-concepts and self-underestimation of math ability [26,27]. These findings suggest that teacher and parent behaviors can and do play a major role in student learning, and that efforts to counter such effects on negative beliefs about math and achievement-related perceptions should begin in early childhood [23].…”